246 Dr Beke on the Mountains forming 
teau beyond it,* of which the other snowy mountain Kenia, 
with its accompanying volcano, as also Doengo-Engai, in like 
manner covered with snow, form integral portions, as Chim- 
borazo does of the Andes. 
The following description of Kilimandjaro and the neigh- 
bouring range of mountains, given by a Portuguese writer in 
the sixteenth century, is entirely in conformity with my view 
of the subject:—“ West of this port [Mombas] stands the 
Mount Olympus of Ethiopia, which is exceedingly high ; and 
beyond it are the Mountains of the Moon, in which are the 
sources of the Nile.” + 
Before proceeding to show further how my hypothesis has 
been confirmed by subsequent discoveries, it will be proper to 
cite the passage in Ptolemy’s Geography which forms the 
basis of the entire argument. 
After describing the east coast of Africa as stretching to- 
wards the east from Cape Rhaptum, on the Barbarian Gulf, 
as far as Cape Prasum, and stating that near the latter Cape 
is an island named Menuthias, the Greek geographer pro- 
ceeds in these terms :—“ Round the Gulf dwell the Cannibal 
negroes, on the west of whose country are the Mountains of the 
Moon, from which the lakes of the Nile receive the snows.” ¢ 
When I first attempted the interpretation of this important 
text, neither the two lakes Nyanza and Tanganyika nor the 
snowy mountains Kilimandjaro and Kenia were known; so 
that I could only assume the general correctness of Ptolemy’s 
statement. But with our existing knowledge it is now possi- 
ble to prove that geographer’s information to have been as 
ample, and nearly as accurate, as our own. The Barbarian 
* Djebel Dubbeh, a volcano about a day’s journey inland from Edd on the 
Abessinian coast, from which a violent eruption took place on the 8th May 
1861, lasting several days, is situate about 230 miles almost due north from 
Aiyalu, and would seem from its position to stand in the same relation to the 
mountain range of Hastern Africa as Aiyalu and Kilimandjaro. An account 
of this eruption is contained in Zhe Times of 20th and 21st June 1861. 
+ Fernandez de Enciso, “ Suma de Geographia” (1530), fol. 54; quoted by 
Mr Cooley in his “ Inner Africa Laid Open,” p. 127. 
t Totrov piv ovy Tov xoAmoU MEpwoinovgsy Aibiorss avbow xoparyor, OY amo duopwy 
binnes TO THs VeArvns 0005, ag’ ov Umodexovras Tas iovas as Tou NeiAou Aluved.— Geogr. 
lib. iv. cap. ix. § 5 (Edit. Bertii, p. 135.) 
